


Tour guide

by Sakura



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-25
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-17 00:19:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1367035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sakura/pseuds/Sakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annabeth gets stood up and gets an unexpected tour offer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tour guide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Radycat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radycat/gifts).



It was the seventh time that girl looked at her watch and it was driving Piper insane. It was Wednesday afternoon and the museum was nearly deserted but for the blond girl in the dress shirt and tube skirt, a security guard whose tag read "Michelle" and Piper herself. The stranger looked almost like an office lady, but rather young to be one. No makeup, no need for it, blond waves pulled up with a hairclip ... she looked nice. Heck, she looked interesting. Intriguing. And that, to Piper, did a lot more than beautiful. Beauty was overrated.  
Michelle sat at her usual place, bored most likely. In half an hour they could go have some coffee and cake or something, but not yet. Not that Piper was thinking about her friend anyway, she was looking at the stranger. What if she spoke to her? What if she found out what idiot had stood her up?  
"May I interest you in a free museum tour?" Piper asked, half surprising herself. She'd been toying with the idea of speaking those words, but actually saying it was a step farther than she usually went with her random fantasies. It was thrilling.  
"Well..." the blond seemed to hesitate for an instant, "sure, why not? It's not like I have anything else to do" a dash of bitterness seeped into that last sentence.  
"Please, follow me," Piper spoke with a stereotypical tour guide tone. She walked towards the first exhibit, some six shelves with stuffed birds on them. The blonde's eyes wandered to the entrance, Piper couldn't help but notice.  
"These are a bunch of birds filled with sawdust," she spoke, as if she was saying something utterly serious, "that one is blue."  
The woman's eyes widened for a tiny moment, she smiled and then laughed at Piper's serious expression.  
"Well, it is blue," she said sheepishly.  
"You're not really a tour guide, are you?" the blonde asked.  
"Not really. It just looked like you needed some cheering up. I was waiting for a friend to get off her shift," she said waving at Michelle who waved back. She'd understand if Piper went off with a pretty girl. Heck, she most likely was making up a sex scene behind the fossil exhibit in her head.  
"That's a thrush," the blonde said, "sialia sialis, a bluebird. Omnivorous, it's found in North and Central America. And I don't think they're actually filled with sawdust."  
"...so you like birds?" was all Piper could reply. Was she being mocked or-"I do, sort of. Shall we go on with the tour?"  
"Of course," she smiled and played along, relieved she wasn't being blown off, "this over here is an eagle. It is most commonly found in dollar bills."  
"And the Mexican flag," added the blonde with a tiny smile.  
"Right! And in Harry Potter's house for nerds! If you follow me, I will show you the dinosaurs."  
The blonde nodded, another smile blooming on her pretty face. Piper felt the need to keep it there, and if all it took was speaking nonsense, well, she could manage that much.  
By the time they reached the planetarium they'd made fun of quite a few exhibits and Piper had actually learned a thing or two. The young woman knew an amazing amount of random information.  
"What's your name?" Piper asked sitting down on one of the benches for fake-stargazing. It was sort of weird asking after it felt like they knew each other.  
"Annabeth. Do not shorten it to anything," she warned.  
"I'm Piper, and I wasn't going to. It's a nice name,” Piper hesitated. Should she ask? “...so who were you waiting for?"  
"My now ex-boyfriend," she sighed and looked up, "it's a pretty sight, these stars."  
The change in topic was a clear sign not to go back to the boyfriend subject.  
"We should look at the actual ones, they're prettier," Piper replied.  
"We should. How old are you anyway, Piper?" Annabeth asked, looking at her.  
"Eighteen," she lied. Seventeen and a third, really, but who was counting? She'd be out of school soon enough.  
"I'm twenty, and six of those years I spent with a guy whose head is filled with seaweed," she said, "it's time to face the fact that he no longer cares."  
Fuck, boyfriend topic. Think fast, McLean.  
"You know, my dad's girlfriend once had me believe seaweed was fish poop. I was never able to eat sushi."  
Annabeth started laughing at this, Piper smiled. Safe! But, wait ... In the half darkness she could see a couple of tears rolling down the young woman's cheeks, but she spoke with a steady voice.  
"So, we should eat some burgers before going stargazing this Friday. No sushi."  
"No sushi," Piper agreed. Was that a date? Was Annabeth even ...?  
"Hey, Annabeth ... are you ... I mean is this...?" she started asking.  
"It'll take a while until I can start something new," she said, "but we'll see."  
Piper smiled. That was a definite maybe.  
"Hey ... you know what constellation you're sitting under?" she asked, "That, on top of your head, is the mistletoe constellation." Piper had slipped back into her tour guide tone.  
"Oh?" Annabeth sounded amused.  
"Well, you know what they say..." Piper leaned forward and Annabeth leaned into her, lips pressed together, touching slowly, tentatively. Her breath smelled minty and all the skin Piper could feel was so soft and perfect and- Annabeth broke the kiss and took out her cell phone. One missed call flashed on the screen, Piper could see it from where she sat.  
"Can I have your number?" the woman asked, not minding the call. Piper gave it to her immediately, repeating to make sure she hadn't made any mistakes.  
"Friday?"  
"At eight," said Piper with a broad smile, "good luck with that fish poop."  
"Thank you, I think I'll need it."  
The younger girl was left sitting alone under a sky of fake stars and a fake constellation. Hopefully sometime soon she'd be sitting under the real thing.

**Author's Note:**

> The cover for this fic should be a picture of Percy and Jason with huge swords.


End file.
